S. Fla. women earn 86 cents for every male worker's dollar

South Florida women continue to lag behind male workers for pay, earning 86 cents for every dollar men earn, a new study finds, based on U.S. Census Bureau data.

Still, women in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties are among the national leaders in closing the wage gap, according to the report from the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Nationally, full-time working women average only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men -- 9 cents less than South Florida women, the study found.

In fact, women in the three South Florida counties earn closer to what men take home in their paychecks than women in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Washington and Chicago, the nonprofit said.

Single South Florida women have been outperforming single men, other recent studies have shown. They are getting better educations. They are buying twice as many homes. And they are out-earning their male counterparts.

However, South Florida women still earn less than women working in cities throughout the Northeast, just as South Florida men do.

South Florida full-time female workers take home $34,860 a year while men earn $40,771, the U.S. Census Bureau found.

In contrast, women in the New York urban area earn $46,642 a year while their male counterparts have paychecks that total $55,071 a year.

If men and women earned the same pay in South Florida, families would benefit -- as they would throughout the nation, the center concluded.

"Each full-time working woman [in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties] could afford to pay for food for one more year, buy more than 1,600 more gallons of gas, pay mortgage and utilities for three more months or pay rent for five more months," according to the report.

This would make a big difference among the more than 85,800 women-headed households in South Florida that currently live below the poverty level, the study concluded.